End of Year Gifts

This year, I decided to give my students something that would get them in the mood for summer (as if they weren't already in the mood!).  Inspired by Pinterest, I gave each child an inflatable beach ball and we took time in class to sign each other's.  This gift was so easy and a huge hit:

Static electricity discovery took place while we were waiting for everyone to inflate their ball:

In addition to student gifts, I also gave my parent volunteers a gift of appreciation for their help this year:

A pitcher and various Crystal Light drink mixes

If you'd like to print the "Thanks for Pitching In" tags seen above, click HERE to go to the What the Teacher Wants blog post.

Finally, I had a high school student helper this year.  She loves dark chocolate, so I bought her an assortment of Lindt dark chocolate and some lip balm with the following tag from U-Create Crafts:

So cute, right?!  I just love Pinterest-inspired gifts. 

Celebrating the end of the school year...

The last two weeks of school have been a little tough.  Many of my students have already "checked out."  We are tired and ready for summer.  Listening skills are lacking and I'm trying my best to keep the students focused until the last day.  It's very difficult.

To try to get them more engaged, we decided to do one fun activity each day until the last day of school.  At this point, we are only two days away from summer!  Here's our list of activities that we started last Monday:

1.  Name Change Day (my students were able to pick out a new name for themselves and I called them by this new name all day.  I had them wear name tags so I could recall their names.  The class said that I needed a new name too.  Yes!  Now I don't have to hear "Mrs. Bowman" a million times a day!  They decided my new name was Mrs. Namwob (Mrs. Bowman spelled backwards).

2.  15 minutes Extra Recess

3.  Gum Day (students brought their own gum, but I also supplied each student with a handful of Dubble Bubble)

4.  Sit Where You Want Day

5.  Soda Day (students brought their own soda)

6.  iPad Play (I gave the students about 20 minutes of free iPad time)

7.  Donuts for Everyone (This was easy because we won a donut party for bringing in the highest number of Box Tops for the school)

8.  A visit from Miko (My little 10 pound, Yorkie mix paid a visit to the class.  I felt this meeting was appropriate because my students have had to listen to stories about him all year.)

9.  Last Day of School party at Fun Station! 

End of Year Gift 2014

In the last post, I shared how delighted my students were to receive their personalized, framed Word Clouds.  Here's the video of them opening their gifts:

End of Year/Volunteer Appreciation Gifts

This year, I wanted to do something special for my students' end of the year gift.  I, of course, searched Pinterest for ideas and found inspiration for not only my students' gifts but also my classroom volunteers' gifts.  For my students, I decided to surprise them with an encouraging, personalized word cloud in a frame:

In order to put these together, about a month before school ended, I told the class that we were going to complete an encouragement activity.  I asked them to take out a sheet of paper, write their name at the top, and then number from 1-15 (because I had 15 students).  Each student is assigned a number in my class, so I asked them to mark through their own number in the list.  The children had to pass the papers around the classroom (of course, I did this very orderly), think of a positive characteristic for the person whose name was listed at the top, and then write this encouraging attribute next to their own assigned number.  Since I know all my students' numbers, I could easily tell who had not yet signed someone's paper.  Also, the students were not allowed to repeat words, so occasionally, I'd have to say, for example, "Oh!  Numbers 9 and 14, you both said this person was 'Awesome' so you need to change this.  We can't have repeats."  I encouraged them to stay away from "blah" words like nice, sweet, great, awesome, etc.  The kids took this task very seriously and many of them pulled out a thesaurus!

 

Once all the papers were completed, I collected them and did NOT let the children see their own papers.  How mean!  I told the class, "Don't worry; I'll let you see them another day."  They continued asking about them each week.  I finally said, "Okay.  You'll see them on the last day of school."  Groan.  They were not impressed, but I knew they would love what I was going to do with these lists! 

I used Tagxedo.com to create the word clouds.  I printed them out and cut them to fit an 8x10 frame.

On the last day of school, I placed the gift bags on the students' desks, but the children were not allowed to open their bag until everyone arrived.  I chose gift bags of blue and yellow (our school colors), which were reminiscent of the first day of school when I decorated each desk with blue and yellow balloons and a welcome bag:

Last Day of School

First Day of School

I loved hearing the delighted "ooohs" and "aahhs" from the children as they opened their gifts.  They seemed to enjoy reading the positive words their classmates had written about them.  It was a sweet way to end the year.

Oh, yes!  I also added a little something extra to the bags of the students who were stuck on Space Shot with me during our Space Camp Trip:

On another note, let me share my volunteer appreciation gifts with you.  This year, I had three main moms help out in my classroom.  I gave these ladies homemade pomegranate hand scrub...and I may have made a batch for myself too!  I attached a note that said something like, "Thanks for lending a helping hand this year.  Now, please enjoy this homemade pomegranate hand scrub."  I also personalized Thank-You cards for them.  I appreciated their help so much this year!

The hand scrub was super easy to make, with only two ingredients, and it smelled delicious!  I simply combined sugar and Dawn dishwashing liquid (the pink kind with Olay hand renewal) until the consistency was like a scrub.

Voila!  As I said at the beginning of this post, Pinterest was my inspiration.  If you'd like to check out my Gift Ideas board, click HERE.  To see my End of the School Year board, click HERE.

Volunteer Appreciation Gifts



This year, I had several moms volunteer their time each week in my classroom.  I had a copy mom, a grading mom, a mom who put the newsletters and student work together, and reading group moms.  They were a huge help and I wanted to do a little something to show my appreciation.  I found many ideas on Pinterest.  CLICK HERE to check out my "Gift Ideas" board. 

 

I decided to go with a "mint" bag and popcorn (and of course a hand-written Thank You note):      

I put a variety of mints in a bag and printed off the adorable, colorful tag from April's TPT site: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Parent-Volunteer-Appeciation-Gift-Tags-Cards-231826.   

I made the popcorn tags myself and attached a bow (not shown).  I also made this little note in a Word document, but the idea came from Pinterest:

My parent volunteers were amazing and deserved more than this!  Even though it wasn't much, I think they appreciated the gesture and I certainly appreciated their help!

Time Capsules

When I was in 2nd grade, my amazing teacher, Mrs. Reid, allowed us to create our own time capsules.  We brought in coffee cans for our capsules.  She spray-painted the cans and then we got to decorate them with super cute stickers to personalize them.  We stuffed them with drawings, writing samples, pictures, Q&A sheets about our interests, etc., and other work from the year.  She taped them up with packaging tape and told us we couldn't open them until we graduated from high school.

Here's my dinky little time capsule from 1991:  (Of course, it looked much nicer when I was 7 years old.  Most of the super cute stickers were torn off when I ripped away the packaging tape.)

Oh well!  It's full of fun memories!  I love seeing my 2nd grade handwriting and reading the funny things I wrote.   

 

I've cherished my time capsule and knew I would continue this tradition when I had my own classroom. 

Every year, I have students bring in coffee cans...I spray paint them...and we stuff them with various things from the year.  I've decorated them in many ways throughout the years, but recently started adhering our class picture to the can.  This year, I'm thinking of adding thumbprints to the cans and have each child sign their name next to their thumbprint. 

 I'll attach a note to the top, reminding the students not to open their time capsules until they graduate from high school.  Then, they will open their can and reminisce about their last year of elementary school. 



End of the Year Activities

Last week, I randomly came up with a fun activity that I had no idea would be such a hit!  On Monday, during snack, my 5th graders and I were talking about name meanings.  I asked the kids, "If you could choose your own name, what would it be and why?"  I would like to be named Lauren because I think it's a beautiful, feminine name.  After talking for a while, I suggested that the students come up with a name they'd like to be called and I would call them by that name on Friday.  They were thrilled!  I had no idea this was such a gift--I could have been using this as a reward during the school year!  Ha!

Anyway, Friday came and they had to get their names approved by me before they could write it on their nametag and stick it to their shirt.  It had to be an actual name.  I wouldn't approve "Iron Man" or anything like that. 

My boys wanted to be the characters from Duck Dynasty so I had Willie, Phil, Jase, Jep, and Si in my classroom.  I also had Elmer, Leroy, Carlos, and Sheboudaquay (I don't know where they came from!).  The girls were a little more serious.  I had Jessica, Mia, Rose, Miriam, Sadie, and Heather Mae. 

I called them by their new names all day.  The students would snicker when I'd ask questions like, "Elmer, how did you come up with 40% as your answer for problem #10?" or "Can you tell me the difference between monocots and dicots, Willie?"  It sounded so silly!

The kids were having so much fun with this and at one point during the day, I overheard a student tell another, "Man, I wish we could do this every Friday...or at least do something cool every day until the end of the year." 

That comment made me think.  I would love to do something special each day until the end of the year (I'm getting weary too, ya know).  It would be nice to have something fun to look forward to.  I quickly remembered an "End of the Year Activity" pin from Pinterest and decided to use the idea.

After school, I blew up colorful balloons (8 to be exact, since we have 8 days of school left) and hung them from the ceiling.  Each balloon has a sheet of paper inside with a fun idea/activity written on it.  We will pop a balloon each day and do whatever activity is listed.  My activities cost virtually no money and I knew they would be something the students would enjoy.  Here they are:

1. Sit where you want for the day
2. Hold one class outside
3. Trip to the Treasure Chest for everyone!
4. Popsicle Party (This was the only thing that cost me money, but a box of popsicles wasn't expensive.)
5. Icee Attack! (We will walk next door to the Circle K and get Icees.  This is something 5th grade does once every 9 weeks.  Parents send in money for this treat, so it doesn't cost me anything.)
6. Have a "Study Hall" so that you can finish your homework at school.  (Trust me; this will excite them.  I know it doesn't sound awesome, but they've been begging me for a "Study Hall.")
7. 15 minutes extra recess
8. $20 in tickets for everyone (The tickets/money is part of my behavior management plan)

Check out my "End of the School Year" board on Pinterest for more ideas:  CLICK HERE